IN THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES what is the significance of the quotation in ch7 at the beginning of the chapter?What is the significance of the...

The quote I believe you are referring to is, "How did bees
ever become equated with sex? They do not live a riotous sex life themselves. The hive
suggests cloister more than bordello." It refers to the talk about the "birds and the
bees" that every parent dreads having with their child sooner or later. Lily and Zach
are becoming more and more interested in each other as those of the opposite sex do.
Bees mate only with the queen, and most drones do not mate at all. How bees came to be
in the phrase above is funny given their mating habits (or lack of them). Each chapter
begins with a quote from a nonfiction book about the life of bees. The quote, in some
way, relates or foreshadows the human events in each chapter.